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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26789338">Honey, you're familiar, like my mirror years ago</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/these_dreams_go_on/pseuds/these_dreams_go_on'>these_dreams_go_on</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The 100 (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Functioning Earth, Linctavia - Freeform, Not Canon Compliant - Season 7 (The 100 (TV)), Panic Attacks, Reincarnation, happy ever after</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:13:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,285</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26789338</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/these_dreams_go_on/pseuds/these_dreams_go_on</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Prompt- Lincoln was reborn and is on earth where Octavia and the others from Bardo have been sent to because he and Octavia are soulmates, he doesn't remember her at first but they do get their happy ending together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Octavia Blake &amp; Lincoln, Octavia Blake/Lincoln</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>The t100 Writers for BLM Initiative</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/munequita/gifts">munequita</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm so excited to have written this prompt for the 100 Writers BLM initiative. </p><p>TW: Panic Attacks, mentions of torture and canon compliant violence.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At night, he dreams of other worlds.<br/><br/></p><p>Of mountains filled with monsters.</p><p><br/>Of stars that crash into the earth and die slowly.</p><p><br/>Of animals with multiple heads and humans with no hearts.</p><p><br/>He dreams he is being chased through a forest, although he doesn’t know by who, or even by what, he only knows that they are after him and then a loud bang startles him awake.</p><p><br/>As a child, he’d thought that sound was being made by someone in the world around him, it wasn’t until years later that he realised that it was part of his dreaming.</p><p><br/>Opening his eyes, he lays there for several moments until his heart stops beating wildly and then he slowly creeps out into the world.</p><p><br/>The freezing, rushing river takes his breath away but by his own choice and always makes him feel better, so he dives underneath the currents continuously until he senses that he’s no longer alone.</p><p><br/>He treads water until he finds his footing and turns to the bank to where his watcher perches against a tree.</p><p><br/>“If you drown on me, I shall never forgive you.” she warns him and he eases his way to the shore with a grin,</p><p><br/>“That doesn’t sound like my problem,” he quips, before ducking his head as a sign of respect, “Heda.”</p><p><br/>Three generations ago, there had been a tremendous storm that had destroyed much of their village and three days later, they’d found Mother Gaia alone in the forest, wounded and crying.</p><p><br/>It had taken many years for their people to accept her, and many more once they realised that she didn’t age, but by the time he’d been born, she’d been declared their leader.</p><p><br/>She’d taught them her language and some of her customs, she’d revealed the lies of their ancestors, of a final war and the Shephard and offered a way of peace.</p><p><br/>She was wise and just, strong and kind.</p><p><br/>And <em>he</em> was her favourite.</p><p><br/>He had been for years now since she’d given him his second name- Lincoln.</p><p><br/>She told him it had belonged to a good, brave man she’d known a long time ago, a friend she’d loved like a brother and whose loss she’d mourned for a very long time.</p><p><br/>He asked her if he resembles Lincoln in any way and she'd choked on her laugh,</p><p><br/>“As if you were his twin.” She'd told him.</p><p><br/>He considers it an honour to be Mother Gaia’s friend and feels protective of her, even if she was old and potentially immortal, she was still small and looked fragile, particularly when storms raged across their world and she insisted on walking out into the pouring rain to watch them.</p><p><br/>Once, one of their men had followed her and swore that she’d been calling up to the sky, calling people’s names and begging them to find her, to join her on Earth.</p><p><br/>But this had been decades ago and no-one else had ever been found in the woods after the storm.</p><p><br/>No strangers anyway.</p><p><br/>And yet, every time there was even a moderately heavy rain, he saw her eyes flash with hope.</p><p><br/>It was why he watched the rolling dark clouds with concern, they were nearly black, and the wind was buffeting against the trees, blowing debris across the village as people struggled to secure their possessions and take shelter in their stone buildings.</p><p><br/>A child running across the grass screamed as lightning cracked the sky above them, burning their eyes and deafening them momentarily. Lincoln ran out of his hut to grab the girl, holding her tightly until he saw her mother beckoning from her home.</p><p><br/>Her words of thanks are lost in the roar of the wind, but she grabs Lincoln’s arm to pull him inside to safety, and he nearly allows himself to be led in until his instincts tell him to look behind him.</p><p><br/>To where Gaia was striding out into the storm.</p><p><br/>She’d be lucky if she wasn’t blown off a cliff.</p><p><br/>He was soaking wet and shaking from the cold, but he takes a deep breath and makes his way towards her at a quick jog, anything faster and he’d risk sliding and falling in the mud.</p><p><br/>“<em>Gaia!</em>” he cries as he reaches her, “We have to go inside. It’s not safe!”</p><p><br/>She turns to him and even though her face is streaked with the rain that was lashing their bodies, he can tell she’s been crying.</p><p><br/>“It’s the <em>same!</em>” she shouts, barely audible above the roar, “It’s the same as it was when <em>I</em> came through!”</p><p><br/>She continues moving, struggling to catch her cloak around her until the wind buffets it to the point she allows it to be ripped from her body. Lincoln follows it until it wraps itself around a tree and wonders if it’ll be completely ruined.</p><p><br/>Much like Gaia.</p><p><br/>He follows her, of course he does, she was their leader, she gave him his second name, he was her favourite person, he couldn’t leave her in this storm.</p><p><br/>The stories had never mentioned the place where Gaia had been found, after all, one piece of forest was much like the rest, but over the years, he’d noticed that she would kneel before a certain tree and plant flowers or stones there in remembrance.</p><p><br/>She makes her way there now, her head bowed to the left as she studies the land until she finds the right spot, slipping and sliding in the mud and Lincoln strives to get closer to her, to catch her if she fell.</p><p><br/>“I’m here!” she screams into the sky, “I’m waiting for you.”</p><p><br/>“Come back to me! Come home!”</p><p> </p><p>The sky is turning green, but Lincoln ignores it, the world has been filled with strange colours for all his life, he’s more concerned about the colour of the woman in front of him.</p><p><br/>Her lips are turning blue from the cold.</p><p><br/>He’s resolving to grab her and drag her back to the village, throw her over his shoulder and carry her if he had to when strange noises start to echo through the forest.</p><p><br/>It sounded like when you pressed your head to someone’s chest and could hear their heart beat. Without meaning to, he allows his attention to be drawn away from the heda to the sky where the bright green light blinds him for a second.</p><p><br/>When he opens his eyes, he sees something falling from the sky, no <em>someone</em>.</p><p><br/>They hit the ground and roll over several times before coming to a stop and his instincts have him running over to make sure they’re okay.</p><p><br/>Which is why he’s nearly hit by the second person.<br/><br/></p><p>It was raining people.</p><p><br/>He should ask Gaia what’s happening, but the person in front of him is a child, tangled up in her long hair and wounded on her shoulder so she holds his focus.</p><p><br/>Her eyes open and she stares up at him in fright, “It’s okay,” he tries to tell her, even as the storm smothers his voice, “I’m a…”</p><p><br/>He’s shoved out of the way so violently he turns expecting to see someone taller and bigger than him, instead he sees a short woman with blonde hair kneeling beside the child, gathering her up in her arms and he guesses that she must be the mother.</p><p><br/>More people are coming through now and Lincoln wonders if Gaia has summoned them and if so, what she plans to do with them. Even if the path back to the village hasn’t been flooded by now, they don’t have the room for several more people.</p><p><br/>Gaia cries out when another person falls from the sky but this one lands on her feet and is immediately looking about her frowning. At least until Gaia throws herself into her arms, sobbing wildly.</p><p><br/>Someone taps him on the shoulder, and he turns to them, brushing the rain from his eyes.</p><p>“<em>Sha?</em>” he asks, assuming they spoke Gaia’s language.</p><p><br/>A man in pure white robes is staring at him in disbelief.  </p><p><br/>“Lincoln?”</p><hr/><p><br/>The storm rages on for the rest of the night as person after person is pulled from the sky, some of them adults, some of them children, most of them injuring themselves during the fall.</p><p><br/>There was a small cave nearby, barely more than an overhang but it would at least keep them out of the rain enough to put see to their injuries or collect themselves. He helps lead or carry these people as they need and tries to ignore how some of them stare at him like they recognise him.</p><p><br/>Like they <em>know</em> him.</p><p><br/>It’s almost at the point where he can no longer distract himself from the way they whisper about him to one another when the storm finally begins to ease, and he hears the banging of the village drum.</p><p><br/>Four times.</p><p><br/>They were sending scouts out to find him and Gaia.</p><p><br/>He catches her eye over the bent heads of the crowd in the small space and suddenly finds himself wanting to be anywhere else.</p><p><br/>It shakes him to his core that when he strides out into the light rain, more than one voice calls his name and when he hears someone unfamiliar following him, he breaks into a run, not stopping until he hears a cry, the slip of leaves and the thud of someone hitting the ground.</p><p><br/>He’s safe.</p><p><br/>He eases into a light jog and reaches the river at dawn, which had broken its banks, the water having turned murky brown from the dirt and gushing past at a dangerous pace.</p><p><br/>It’d probably be suicide to try swimming in it.</p><p><br/>Which means he can’t use it as a distraction or an excuse to avoid the cave or the village.</p><p><br/>He would have to go back and face those people.</p><p><br/>Those people who knew the name Gaia had given him.</p><p><br/>He sits down.</p><hr/><p><br/>Hours later, he hears footfall behind him, but he doesn’t have the courage to turn around, he stays staring stubbornly at the river until the person appears in his peripheral vision.</p><p><br/>“Hi,” she calls out, “Sorry, I was helping to get some water and I got lost.”</p><p><br/>She’s one of the new arrivals but when he brings his eyes to meet hers, he doesn’t see any recognition in them. That’s what spurs him to take the bucket from her and make his way to the shore, lowering it carefully with a fierce grip on the handle.</p><p><br/>“I’m Hope,” she tells him brightly, “Hope Diyoza.”</p><p><br/>“Lincoln,” he mutters, “Lincoln kom Terra kru.”</p><p><br/>She nods, “Nice to meet you…um…sorry we kind of dropped out of the sky and scared everyone.”</p><p><br/>He chuckles, “We’ll be fine, the last time someone came from the sky we made them our leader.”</p><p><br/>She grins as he hands her the bucket, wincing slightly as she adjusts the weight and even though the village is the last place he wants to be right now, he finds himself following her back there.</p><p><br/>“My mom, Aunty O and I arrived after everyone else,” she explains as they trek through the forest, <br/><br/><br/>“We were lucky to be able to travel at all…poor Aunty O was injured, which is why we need the water.” She lifts her right arm slightly, “There’s lots of blood.”</p><p><br/>It’s then he smells her sweat and notices the way she’s trembling; he’d thought it was from the cold but now he suspects it’s from adrenaline or fear.</p><p><br/>“You’re lucky you came through then,” he tries to assure her, “We have good healers and Gaia is very wise.”</p><p><br/>“And Aunty O can survive anything,” Hope declares, “Especially after getting stabbed and falling off a cliff.”</p><p><br/>Lincoln frowns, he knew basic healing and having been stabbed and falling from a great height probably didn’t make you stronger or healthier.</p><p><br/>He wants to ask questions, beginning with ‘Why did your people fall out of the sky?’ and maybe ending with ‘Why do your people know me and know my name?’</p><p><br/>But when they reach the village, it’s to find Gaia perched against a boulder with her arms crossed, and he wonders if perhaps one of the people had died before she looks up and he realises that she was waiting for him.</p><p><br/>And his feet still, he can’t take another step, not towards the woman who has been lying to him for so many years. The woman he had loved and trusted with his life like his own blood. He finds himself turning away from her, not knowing what he wants except to not face whatever future lay in the village.</p><p><br/>Gaia calls his name and even after everything, he stops to wait for her as she touches his shoulder and draws him towards the embers of a dying fire.</p><p><br/>“I know you must have questions,” she begins, “And perhaps I should have begun telling you the truth before now but…Lincoln I…”</p><p><br/>“<em>Don’t</em> call me that,” he snaps at her, “You know I thought you gave me that name because you cared about me, but that wasn’t it was it?”</p><p><br/>She shakes her head, “I do care about you, two hundred years ago we grew up together and I loved you like a brother, I annoyed you like a sister and when you died…I buried myself in my religion to hide my grief.”</p><p><br/>His head is spinning and the world he knew was shattering slowly, fragments falling away until the only truth he knew was the soil underneath him, the drip of water into a puddle, the cold air against his skin and the woman in front of him.</p><p><br/>“<em>How?</em>”</p><p><br/>Gaia shakes her head, “How have I not aged a day in fifty years? How did my people find me across vast worlds, how was the world destroyed and yet when I returned there were people here? I don’t know.”</p><p><br/>He grunts in frustration and partially turns away, “This is insane!”</p><p><br/>“I know,” she assures him, reaching over to pry his fingers from his clenched fists and take his hand in hers, “Believe me I know, from the day I realised who you were I agonised over telling you and every day I lost the courage, for that I am sorry.”</p><p><br/>“If that man hadn’t called me by my name,” he begins, “Would you have told me?”</p><p><br/>She exhales slowly, “Yes but I wouldn’t have had a choice.”</p><p><br/>“Because one of them would have slipped up eventually?”</p><p><br/>“Because…because one of them…” she huffed and kicked at a stone, “Because one of them was your lover.”</p><p><br/>“Her name was Octavia!” she has to shout these words as he storms away from her, determined not to stay in the village, or perhaps even the same part of the forest.</p><p><br/>“You two were deeply in love, Lincoln you two risked everything to be together!”</p><p><br/>“I don’t know her!” he calls, rounding back on her, “What kind of name is Octavia?! I don’t know her and I’m beginning to think that I don’t know you!”</p><p><br/>“I am still the woman I have always been,” she pants, struggling to keep up with his long strides,</p><p><br/>“And perhaps this is why I was brought here, and why you were reborn. Perhaps it was so the two of you could be together again.”</p><p><br/>He shakes his head, “I don’t know her.”</p><p><br/>He picks up his pace and she lets him leave.</p><hr/><p><br/>When he was a teenager and both his parents had died, he’d felt out of place in the village, unable to breathe in the familiar surroundings and wanted to be alone.</p><p><br/>There’d been a cave in the forest he’d found as a child that he’d used to play in for hours and after one particularly rough day, he’d packed a blanket and headed out there, intending to stay for days on end.</p><p><br/>That had been before he realised just how much was needed to make a cave habitable for more than one night when the other option was a bed in the village. Not that there was much for his people to spare, but Gaia had given him one of her pillows and let him keep extra supplies there.</p><p><br/>It had become his sanctuary, he loved it.</p><p><br/>He kept kindling stored far from the opening, which he uses to build a fire now and crouched before it to try and dry himself off.</p><p><br/>While he stares at the flames, growing steadily stronger and brighter, his mind goes blank but when he lies down on the blanket, he’s no longer able to ignore the intrusive thoughts.</p><p><br/>He had lived before, in another life, another world.</p><p><br/>There had been people who’d been his friends, his family, people whom he’d loved.</p><p><br/><em>Octavia</em>.</p><p><br/>What kind of name was Octavia?</p><p><br/>And what kind of person was she?</p><p><br/>Someone he’d risked everything for, if he was to believe Gaia, and in spite of everything, he still did.</p><p><br/>But that didn’t tell him anything about her.</p><p><br/>Was she brave? Was she kind? What had he loved about her and what had she loved about him?</p><p><br/>Staring up at the cave ceiling, his mind swims with ideas and his imagination runs wild. When he dreams that night, he dreams of a naked woman writhing underneath him, moaning his name, the glow of the fire brushing her skin and when he awakes, he tries to decide whether that had been dream or a memory.</p><p><br/>The worst thing is he can’t be sure.</p><p><br/>Unless he asks a complete stranger.</p><p><br/>He sits up only long enough to stoke the fire up again before laying back down. In the village he would never be so lazy, but here, he allows his fears to keep him on the blanket until the wind outside changes course and his cave begins to fill with smoke. By now the river should have calmed down enough for him to be able to swim in it without risking being pulled under by violent currents, so he heads down there and is so caught up in the remnants of his dreams and thoughts that he doesn’t even notice he’s not alone until he nearly dives on top of someone.</p><p><br/>“Wow, not even here a full day and you’re already trying to kill me,” Hope jokes as he comes up for air,</p><p><br/>“Should I be offended?”</p><p><br/>She waves off his apology while she continues treading water and he settles near her.</p><p><br/>“Were you looking to be alone?” she asks, and he takes a moment to consider,</p><p><br/>“I don’t know,” he answers honestly, “I just can’t be in the village right now.”</p><p><br/>She nods, “Because you’re the reincarnation of someone who died centuries ago? Indra and Clarke explained it to me.” She added as an explanation that he could only shake his head to,</p><p><br/>“I don’t know who Indra or Clarke are,” he vents, “I don’t know who any of you are except that I’m supposed to be someone who died centuries ago.”</p><p><br/>“We never met, if that helps?” Hope offered, “I was born a hundred and fifty years or so after you died.”</p><p><br/>His arms still just enough for his chin to drop below the waterline and he sputters, “That’s crazy.”</p><p><br/>She chuckles at that, “You know, I never knew you and nobody ever told me much about you, but if you have questions about the rest of them, I could probably answer them?”</p><p><br/>He hesitates because he doesn’t know this person before him and she most definitely arrived with the others, but if she’s to be believed, she’s the one with the least connection to him and the one he’d be the least beholden to.</p><p><br/>“I grew up on a planet inhabited by two other people,” Hope added, “One of whom was my mother, I don’t really have any friends yet.”</p><p><br/>That decided it for him.</p><p><br/>“What can you tell me about the people that came through with you?”</p><hr/><p><br/>For hours, he and Hope sit on the edge of the riverbank as she tells him what she recalls from her childhood stories and what she’s picked up from interacting and watching these people.</p><p><br/>She tells him about wars and destroyed planets, she tells him about entire societies saved and lost. She tells him about people with epic loves and people with epic loves but even more epic denial. She explains who people are in relation to others and as far as she can determine, him.</p><p><br/>He learns that her Aunty O is Octavia and that she helped raise her on Sky-ring.</p><p><br/>By her own admission, Hope shouldn’t tell him about Octavia because she can’t be partial, she loves her fiercely and idolizes her in her own way.</p><p><br/>She’s trying to explain edible algae and jellyfish to him when they hear someone calling her name.</p><p><br/>“<em>Little One</em>,” the voice reaches through the trees, “<em>Come out, come out wherever you are</em>.”</p><p><br/>Even as she rolls her eyes, Hope has a tender smile on her face that makes Lincoln ache for his own lost family,</p><p><br/>“That’s Aunty O,” she explains, climbing to her feet and offering him a hand up, “I should go meet her, you can hide out here if you want, I’ll make sure she doesn’t…”</p><p><br/>He nods and lets her go distract Octavia, he can hear their voices mingling together and a laugh that sends thrills down his spine but doesn’t trigger any memories. Still, he finds himself unable to move until long after their voices have faded away and been replaced by the sounds of nature.</p><p><br/>Two days later, he walks through the forest at dusk with the knowledge that its foolish to be out at this hour, when the night creatures were beginning to hunt but unable to spend another moment in his cave. He even contemplates going back to the village to see what was happening when he catches a flicker in the corner of his eye.</p><p><br/>A bright blue butterfly makes its way past him, towards the trees he knew they called home and with nothing better to do, he follows them.</p><p><br/>The small creatures in this part of the forest glowed in the dark and were generally safe from predators because of this. It could be nice to watch them move about for hours and Lincoln grabs a branch as he enters the small clearing startling several into taking flight.</p><p><br/>Which is why he doesn’t immediately notice that he’s not alone.</p><p><br/>A woman was kneeling on the ground, her fingers dug into the earth and her shoulders shaking as she wept. Her brunette hair covered her lowered face, the butterflies hovered on her back, all he could see was a tattooed arm and a bandaged leg, but he instinctively knew who this was.</p><p><br/>“Octavia,” he whispers her name, stepping forward and her head shoots up, her eyes going wide in shock and causing her to scramble back before wincing and clutching at her leg,  </p><p><br/>“Are you hurt?” he asks, noting the large branch out of place on the ground beside her and wondering what he could do to help.</p><p><br/>She shakes her head, “No…well, yeah, but I’m healing,”</p><p><br/>“It’s just…” she trails off and waves an arm around, displacing more butterflies, “This place, there was one like it when I first came to Earth, I had my first kiss there…with a boy named Atom” she adds hastily and he swallows, wondering if that was meant to be a rejection, “And the memories were just…overwhelming.”</p><p><br/>He doesn’t know her, he doesn’t owe her anything, but he finds himself wanting to comfort her,</p><p><br/>“When my father died, I couldn’t look at his chair for weeks on end without wanting to break it. I had to put it in Gaia’s hut for safekeeping.”</p><p><br/>He had lied to Gaia about that, wanting her to believe it was a gift because he wanted to give her something, but in truth, he’d been afraid he’d burn it if he had to look at that empty chair for one moment more.</p><p><br/>She drops her head for a moment before looking back up, “If this was two hundred years ago, I wouldn’t even have to ask but…are you okay? Being told you’re a reincarnation of someone can’t have been easy.”</p><p><br/>He manage a light chuckle at that and crouches down so that they’re at eye level,</p><p><br/>“Honestly, I…I don’t think I’m him,” he admits, feeling a stab of guilt when he sees a flash of pain in her eyes, “I don’t remember a past life, I don’t remember the Earth before now and I don’t remember you.”</p><p><br/>She turns her face away and released a ragged breath that makes him feel worse, “I am sorry.” he promises her, but she shakes her head,</p><p><br/>“No I…it’s not on you,”</p><p><br/>“Just because you look like him, doesn’t mean you have to be him or anyone but yourself.”</p><p><br/>Still, her eyes are wet with fresh tears and he can’t help but feel that he’s let her- and perhaps himself- down. But before he can say anything, maybe offer another apology, she’s reaching for the branch and trying to push herself to her feet.</p><p><br/>And he’s reaching for her and helping her up before he even notices that he’s moved, he holds her elbow until she’s steady and she thanks him.</p><p><br/>“Hope said you were stabbed and fell off a cliff?” he prompts as she begins limping to the village and she frowns,</p><p><br/>“She did? I mean I was, but that was years ago. No, I took a bullet to my thigh getting Clarke and Madi out of trouble.”</p><p><br/>He doesn’t know what a bullet is, but her leg is heavily bandaged, and she winces when she puts even the slightest pressure on it.</p><p><br/>There’s a steep hill up ahead which he can climb to get back to his cave, however Octavia is already beginning to pant and in the rapidly approaching darkness, she could get lost or put a foot wrong and injure herself further.</p><p><br/>“You don’t have to walk me back.” she tells him when they can see the glow from a bonfire up ahead,</p><p><br/>“I need to come back anyway.” he lies smoothly but she only snorts,</p><p><br/>“<em>Sure.</em>”</p><p><br/>Hope is waiting at the edge of the village, bouncing on the soles of her feet and she rushes over to sling an arm under her shoulder, taking her weight and Lincoln wonders if he maybe should have carried her.  </p><p><br/>“Hey, I’m fine little one,” Octavia assures her, “I just needed to stretch my legs.”</p><p><br/>“And probably tear the stitches,” She chastises, “Honestly, Aunty O…”</p><p><br/>“She’s on the verge of death.” Lincoln jests and Hope has a moment of frozen panic before she sees his smile,</p><p> </p><p>“Oh good, I was worried she was trying something new.”</p><p><br/>Hope mouths a thanks over Octavia’s head as she leads her to the healing hut, and he waits to see if she’ll look back.</p><p><br/>She doesn’t and that disappoints him for some reason.</p><p><br/>He feels Gaia watching him but can’t bring himself to come home, not yet anyway, so he turns to make his way back to his cave.</p><p><br/>That night, he dreams of white flowers strewn about the forest.</p><hr/><p><br/>The people might have fallen from the sky and be centuries old but within weeks, they had been folded up into the village as if they had been born there.</p><p><br/>He’s brought the news by some of the villagers whose ancestors opposed Gaia being elected their leader, people who think that he’s staying away out of opposition towards the <br/>newcomers.</p><p><br/>He’s told the ones called Clarke, Madi and Jackson have taken over the healing hut and the rest are being put to building their homes and tilling the soil in preparation for farming.</p><p><br/>He could ask them about Octavia, but he can’t force the words off his tongue.</p><p><br/>Not that it matters, Hope brings him updates when they meet at the river every morning, how quickly she’s healing, how she’s already bored and has been caught exploring the village when she’s meant to be resting, how she played a game of hide and seek with the children that ended with her twisting her ankle.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <em>It is night time, Octavia is lying facedown in the dirt, covered in mud with twigs in her long hair, with her last strains of consciousness, she stares at him in horror.</em>
</p><p><br/>Stars dance in front of his eyes and he cries out in pain, reaching up to clutch his forehead as Hope backtracks,</p><p><br/>“Did you just walk into a <em>tree?</em>” she giggles, “Sorry, are you hurt?”</p><p>
  <br/>
  <em>Twisted her ankle.</em>
</p><p><br/>“I…” he trails off, rubbing his forehead absent-mindedly, “I’m not sure…”</p><p><br/>He follows Hope back to the village not because he wants to be there, but because he can’t trust himself to head back to his cave without tripping over a boulder or trying to walk through a river.</p><p><br/>He replays the images in his mind until they no longer make sense and he can’t be certain that he isn’t adding his own narrative to them.</p><p><br/>Those that arrived with her stop to watch him as he walks beside her, those that had known him and those that knew of him. They don’t try to approach him at least, but their stares burn into the back of his head.</p><p><br/>Hope leads him over to the tent she’s sharing with her mom while their hut is being built, they find her perched on a chair and attempting to whittle something.</p><p><br/>“Mom, this is Lincoln,” she introduces as she puts down the bucket of water, “Lincoln, this is Charmaine Diyoza.”</p><p><br/>Hope’s mom glances up from her knife, “Right, Octavia’s ex?”</p><p><br/>Lincoln grimaces as Hope hisses at her mom to stop embarrassing her but the older woman only shrugs,</p><p><br/>“<em>What?!</em> I am one of the few people in this village who isn’t bugging Gaia to order him home to play happy families. I can call him what I want.”</p><p><br/>Hope looks ready to throw the bucket of water at her mother to shut her up, but Lincoln suddenly has a pressing question for her,</p><p><br/>“The people you arrived with are trying to order me back?” he asks, and she nods,</p><p><br/>“Yep, first thing they asked for once they were all up and about. Lucky for you, the only person more pissed off about that is Octavia and even with only one good leg at the moment, she’s still not someone you wanna face in a fight.”</p><p><br/>His first thought is to go shout at someone, but even with everything that he’s been through, he doesn’t want to argue with Gaia. He tries to process everything he’s feeling before he reacts and Hope’s mother seems to predict his next question,</p><p><br/>“She’s about half a mile that way playing with dirt.”</p><p><br/>He finds Octavia by one of the half-built huts, leaning back on her hands with her legs stretched out before her, her injured leg propped up against a log. She looks up at his arrival and he notices that her face is flushed but her green eyes are free of pain.</p><p><br/>She’s beautiful.</p><p><br/>He looks to the four neat rows she’s made in the dirt which are too short to grow enough herbs or vegetables to last more than a few days. He wants to point this out, but he doesn’t know how where to begin.</p><p><br/>“Don’t worry,” she tells him, smiling at the concern on his face, “It’s going to be a flower garden, we had one when Hope was growing up and I want to have one again.”</p><p><br/>“I like growing beautiful things just because.”</p><p><br/>She pats the space beside her and after only a moment of hesitation, he sits down.</p><p><br/>He knows he shouldn’t, that he should keep away from her for both their sakes but he’s interested in her, something pulls him towards her and he doesn’t know whether it’s her lovely green eyes, her smile, the way Hope raved about her or the fact that she was injured, exhausted and still determined to grow flowers</p><p><br/>“Hope’s mother told me that the people you arrived with want me to return to the village.” He says and she huffs in annoyance,</p><p><br/>“I told her not to say anything,” she mutters, “Don’t worry, I won’t let that happen.”</p><p><br/>“I don’t remember any of them,” he reminds her, and she nods, “I know, it’s not about that…not really…”</p><p><br/>She exhales and glares at the tilled soil, as if expecting the answer to shoot out of the dirt,</p><p><br/>“They want peace,” she begins, “After everything we’ve been through, after everything we’ve done to survive, they want a definite happy ending so that they can stop looking over our shoulders for the next disaster.”</p><p><br/>“How am I in the way of that?” he asks, “Gaia is our leader, I don’t hold enough power in the village to stand against the people who aren’t happy with your arrival.”</p><p><br/>“It’s not that,” she states, “It’s…they have this idea of us being the happy ending, and that if we get together, everything will magically sort itself out.”</p><p><br/>He groans and rubs a hand over his shaved head, “That’s not how it works.”</p><p><br/>“I know,” she promises, “And don’t worry, I talked to them, nobody is allowed within a mile of your cave, or the river except Hope.”</p><p><br/>“She’s my favourite.” He jests and she beams,</p><p><br/>“Mine too.”</p><p><br/>He wants to stay, he wants to sit beside her and talk about everything and nothing, to tell her about his village and the people, who was nice and who to avoid. He wants to compare Hope’s stories with her version and he wants to ask why she fell in love with him.</p><p><br/>With <em>Lincoln</em>, he corrects himself hastily and knows at that point he should leave.</p><p><br/>Still, when he’s barely three steps away before he turns back, “What do you want?” he asks, and she shrugs, “I want to plant some flowers, watch them grow and I’ll work it out from there.”</p><p> </p><p>That night, Lincoln sits in front of the merrily crackling fire in his cave and pointedly ignores the white lilies he’d harvested, making sure to dig them up carefully so that he’d be able to get as many bulbs as possible.</p><hr/><p><br/>Octavia keeps her word and no one but Hope intrudes on his privacy while he stubbornly remains in his cave, even with the storm season steadily approaching.</p><p><br/>At this point, he doesn’t know how to return to the village.</p><p><br/>At least until one morning when Hope mentions that Dario, a grumpy old man who’d always hated change, had been found in Lincoln’s hut helping himself to his possessions.</p><p><br/>From what she knew, he’d carried off his blankets until Gaia and Octavia had made him give them back and Lincoln reasons that if he didn’t return soon, Gaia would probably have to give his hut away, leaving it empty was a waste.</p><p><br/>Besides, the lily bulbs had been sitting in the cave for so long he was worried they’d rot.</p><p><br/>Still, he lingers at the edge of the tree line, hidden from view and waits until the village is as quiet as it will ever be before he crosses the vast distance to his hut.</p><p><br/>He swears the sounds of his boots on the dirt are like rolling thunder and his breathing is so loud that surely somebody will hear him? Or maybe his heart pounding like drum?</p><p><br/>He rushes into his hut and slams the door behind him, his brain seconds behind his sight so he doesn’t immediately realise that he’s not alone.</p><p><br/>“I…sorry,” a voice apologises, and he turns to see a woman getting up from his table.</p><p><br/>“Why are you in here?” he demands, “Who are you?”</p><p><br/>Her mouth contorts in pain and she looks down, “I’m Clarke, I…I’ve been coming in to take inventory and keep everything clean, no one else thought to do it.”</p><p><br/>Clarke Griffin.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <em>Wanheda.</em>
</p><p><br/>Destroyer of Worlds.</p><p><br/>Even in her fairy tales, Hope had struggled to put a positive spin on her, she’d tried her best, but Lincoln had long since learned to listen when her stories strayed too far from reality.</p><p><br/>He swallows, unsure of what to say and she fills the silence with her words,</p><p><br/>“When I was in the Valley, waiting for everyone to come back, I would clean the cabins every two weeks so that when they finally came down, they’d have somewhere to sleep. It was actually nice to be able to do that again.”</p><p><br/>She tucks her hair behind her ear and her shoulders are raised up as if to protect herself from a blow. He wonders if she thought he was going to strike her physically or emotionally.</p><p><br/>Either way, even though he’s still slightly breathless, he smiles.</p><p><br/>“Thank you,” he says, keeping his voice low so as not to startle her.</p><p><br/>“That was kind of you.”</p><p><br/>She frowns at him then and he wonders what he said wrong but she’s nodding and brushing past him, darting out so quickly he wonders if she was hiding from something too.</p><p><br/>It isn’t until a couple of hours later that he even notices that she had left something behind on his table.</p><p><br/>A book of some kind.</p><p><br/>Curious, he reaches out and opens it, running his fingers across the paper in awe when he sees that its covered in drawings.</p><p><br/>He <em>loved</em> drawing.</p><p><br/>He’d covered the cave walls with paint he’d mixed from any plant that could produce colour without burning his skin.</p><p><br/>He turns the first page the right way up and admires the lines of…some sort of building in a forest. There are pages filled with faces, including Octavia with paint marking her face.</p><p><br/>And there’s his own face, he looks older with wrinkles around his eyes but he’s also happy, looking at something to the left, the corner of his mouth turned up.</p><p><br/>Wanheda has known people for centuries, across multiple worlds, why is this book filled with drawings of him and Octavia?</p><p><br/>Dread sinks into his stomach but he can’t stop turning the pages until he reaches the final drawing.</p><p><br/>He is shown only by his back, but Octavia’s face is on his shoulder, they’re embracing in a pile of rubble, surrounded by burning ruins and he thinks he can see a body portrayed in the shadows.</p><p><br/>Underneath that gruesome image of death and despair, a note.</p><p>
  <em>‘Lincoln,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You’re my people too,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Please come back</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Clarke’</em>
</p><p> </p><p>He slaps the book shut and pushes it away from him in disgust, wiping his mouth as he twists his body away from the table.</p><p><br/>He had actually thought she just wanted to be his friend.</p><p><br/>Still, at least he had an excuse to speak to Octavia.</p><hr/><p><br/>That night, his mind drowns in nightmares.</p><p><br/>Of lightning that shoots through his body, burning his skin and breaking his teeth.</p><p><br/>Of monsters that eat living humans.</p><p><br/>Of Octavia screaming at him in fear as a bright red liquid flows through his veins, soaks his brain and drives him mad.</p><p><br/>He wakes up when he hears the bang and shouts in protest.</p><p><br/>He looks around wildly, his mind trying to locate the source of the attack, his body telling him to flee.</p><p><br/>He stumbles through the village, struggling to breathe, the sweat freezing against his skin and his mind screaming that he was in danger from something, something he couldn’t see.</p><p><br/>He cries for help but can’t seek it, his shaking legs bringing him to his knees and the bile crawls up his throat.</p><p><br/>“Hey there…”</p><p><br/>Boots appear in his vision and he turns his head to see Hope’s mother approaching.</p><p><br/>“I’m a friend,” she declares, holding up her hands, “I’m gonna get a little closer okay?”</p><p><br/>He manages a nod before he throws up,</p><p><br/>“The bang…” he pants, “I was <em>shot</em>…I…that’s how I died isn’t it? I was shot in the head?”</p><p><br/>“I don’t know,” she admits, “Listen, I know it feels like you can’t breathe right now but I want you to take deep breaths, like this…”</p><p><br/>She inhales slowly and exhales before him, but he shakes his head,</p><p><br/>“I was tortured, I wanted to keep them safe, I fought for <em>them</em>…I saved Octavia and they tortured me for <em>days</em>…I…just wanted to help them.”</p><p><br/>Diyoza ignores him, “Breathe in slowly and hold it for three seconds,” she instructs, before looking away from him, her mouth moving,</p><p><br/>“Listen buddy,” she says as she focuses back on him, “the sooner you start breathing properly, the sooner we can all go inside where it’s warm, I don’t know about you but I’m freezing my ass off here.”</p><p><br/>He thinks he hears other people approaching and can’t tell whether they’re friends or enemies.</p><p><br/>Azgeda floats to the top of his mind and he shakes his head.</p><p><br/>“I want…” he struggles to get to his feet, slipping in the frost and landing back on his knees, “I want…”</p><p><br/>“<em>Lincoln!</em>”</p><p>
  <br/>
  <em>Home.</em>
</p><p><br/>He can barely choke out her name, but she slides to her knees, appearing in his vision and taking his face in her hands, “Are you okay? What <em>happened?</em>”</p><p><br/>Exhausted, he drops his forehead against hers as the tears begin to stream down his face.</p><p><br/>“I was wrong,” he sobs, “I’m him,”</p><p><br/>“Octavia…I remember everything.”</p><p><br/>Octavia’s eyes widen in shock, but he sees the spark of happiness there before she smothers it and takes a deep breath,</p><p><br/>“Okay, can you stand?”</p><p><br/>A hand touches his bare shoulder and he jumps, but Hope’s friendly voice reaches his ear,</p><p><br/>“It’s just me,” she soothes, “I’m gonna help Aunty O get you back to bed.”</p><p><br/>The two of them get him to his feet and his vision swims but he trusts them, so he closes his eyes and feels the familiar path under him, one he’d trod countless times since <br/>he’d first learnt to walk.</p><p><br/>In a life slowly being overwhelmed by memories of his previous one.</p><p><br/>He’d been born in a village with no name because it was the only place on Earth.</p><p><br/>He’d been born in Ton DC, a day’s walk from Polis.</p><p><br/>The door slam behinds them and Octavia curses at Hope who rapidly apologises.</p><p><br/>The ease him onto the bed and Octavia stands, turning to her,</p><p><br/>“Ask your mom to sit outside, she’s not sleeping anyway. Anyone wants to get in, she can let them pass if they offer trouble but let them know they’ll be facing me if they do.”</p><p><br/>He leans forward, resting his arms on his knees and opening his eyes just enough to make out the floor beneath him,</p><p><br/>“Wait…” he manages, his voice thick and he struggles to get the words past his throat,</p><p><br/>“There’s a book on the table, burn it or give it back to Clarke, but take it away, please.”</p><p><br/>There’s a shuffling movement, the door opens, and he hears the pages rustling as its thrown into the air before the door closes again.</p><p><br/>They’re alone now.</p><p><br/>He hears her take a breath and move across the hut, the scrape of a chair,</p><p><br/>“<em>Don’t</em>,” he pleads, lifting his head and forcing his tired eyelids to open, catching her frozen in the process of sitting down, she’s watching him with her brow furrowed in confusion,</p><p><br/>“I…” he swallows but he can’t try again, so he holds out his arms to her. Cautiously, she makes her way to him and when he doesn’t open his knees, she straddles him, putting her hands on his shoulders,</p><p><br/>“Is this okay?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper and he wraps one arm around her waist while his free hand runs up to cup the back of her head, gently tilting it forward so that her forehead touched his while her hair cascaded down until it cocooned them in their own little world.</p><p><br/>“<em>Ai laik Lincoln kom Trikru</em>,” he murmured, “<em>En yu laik ai niron, Octavia kom Skaikru.</em>”</p><p><br/>Tenderly, she lifted her head to press a kiss to his cheek, her lips lingering there and sending thrills running down his spine.</p><p><br/>“I’m sorry that you remembered like this,” she told him, “But I’m not sorry that you came back to me.”</p><p><br/>He nods and slowly turns to lower her onto the bed, not releasing her until he felt the pillow and blankets against the back of his hand.</p><p><br/>It’s then that he finally notices that she’s barefoot, her soles covered in dirt but so are his and he’s too tired to care, so he grabs the blanket from the floor and drapes it over their bodies.</p><p><br/>Octavia lies as he placed her until he turns onto his side and drapes an arm over her stomach, his body remembering how they’d used to sleep with her curled up against him.</p><p><br/>“Is this okay?” he asks when she takes a ragged breath, but she nods.</p><p><br/>“I’m worried if I move that I’ll wake up and this will have been some sort of dream.” she admits and he manages a weak chuckle,</p><p><br/>“I think for the first time in a while, that we’re both awake.”</p><p><br/>She rolls onto her side and rests her arm above his, linking their fingers together,</p><p><br/>“Goodnight, Lincoln.”</p><p><br/>“Goodnight, Octavia.”</p><p><br/>And for the first time in recent memory, there were no dreams.</p><hr/><p><br/>Gaia finds them the next morning in the dirt outside Octavia’s hut, Lincoln watching as she enthusiastically planted the lily bulbs.</p><p><br/>She eases herself into a sitting position and Lincoln notices that she winces slightly at the effort,</p><p><br/>“Now that you two have found each other and my family has come back to me, I suspect I’m going to start aging again,” she offers by way of greeting and he shrugs,</p><p><br/>“Maybe in two centuries you’ll be reborn.”</p><p><br/>She shakes her head with a rueful smile, “I hope not, no offense, old friend but when my time comes I will hope for eternal rest. I’ve earned it.”</p><p><br/>“Speaking of people who’ve earned eternal rest,” Octavia growls, “Where is Clarke?”</p><p><br/>Gaia tilts slightly to look past him, “Hiding behind Madi and your brother, although I understand that she regrets her actions and their consequences.”</p><p><br/>Octavia snorts, digging her fingers into the dirt and turning it over with unnecessary force, “Bout time.”</p><p><br/>Lincoln smiles fondly at her protectiveness, “Tell her not to hide,” he says to Gaia, “Remind her that she’s my people too, and I will forgive her, in time.”</p><p><br/>Gaia nods, “Madi is excited to meet you,” she adds, getting to her feet slowly, “When you’re ready.”</p><p><br/>He watches her leave before turning back to see Octavia planting the last bulb,</p><p><br/>“There, now we just have to wait until Spring.”</p><p><br/>He reaches over and she takes his hand before crawling on her knees into his arms and he kisses her deeply,</p><p><br/>“We’ll make our home here,” he promises, “We’ll finally have our peace.”</p><p><br/>She nods and rests her face on his chest, “And it only took two lifetimes and several centuries.”</p><p><br/>He chuckles, “It was worth the wait.”</p><p><br/>“Sha.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>One day in winter, Lincoln kom Trikru had been shackled and forced to his knees in a muddy field where he’d been pointlessly executed by a bad man.</p><p><br/>Two centuries later, he wakes up in bed next to the love of his life, listening to her soft breathing and trying to figure out how much he could move without waking her. His hand was on the pillow next to her head and he wanted to be holding her closer to him.</p><p><br/>He might have been the one shot in the head, but she was the one who’d spent several more years trying to survive and cross worlds while he’d been reborn and raised peacefully in the village.</p><p><br/>She also had more of a tendency to get into trouble.</p><p><br/>Which, if he remembered correctly, was a Skai-kru trait.</p><p><br/>He glances up at the smoke hole in the roof, trying to determine the time by the light coming through and decides that it was still far too early to wake her.</p><p><br/>So he settles back into his position and resigns himself to a few more hours of torture until Octavia rolls over in her sleep and reaches out to him. He takes her hand and presses it to his lips before resting it on his shoulder.</p><p><br/>And he knows when she wakes up because her hand has slid down his chest, brushing his stomach before trailing along the waistband of his pants, he inhales and opens his eyes, staring into hers as she scrapes a nail along his skin.</p><p> </p><p>“Is this okay?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper, a fear of rejection still lingering since he’d only recovered his memories a few short hours ago.  With a tender smile, he lowers his head to kiss her, intending it to be short and sweet, but the moment his lips touched hers he felt lust burning through his veins.</p><p> </p><p>He rolls her onto her back and deepens their kiss, teasing her with his tongue and she moans into his mouth. She opens her legs, and he settles between them, beginning to grind against her as they break for air and she presses quick, fierce kisses to his neck before reclaiming his mouth.</p><p> </p><p>Her body is soft against his but the clothes between them are annoying, especially when she’s meeting him thrust for thrust. Her hands are running up and down his chest, gripping his shoulder and pulling at the cord of his pants. He ends their kiss with a bite on her upper lip and she follows him as he sits back on his haunches, her face flushed and her eyes shining,</p><p> </p><p>“I want you,” she tells him, and she’d said the same thing the night before they’d first slept together, which brings a fond smile of reminiscence to his face. But that’s brought to a violent halt when she reaches up to pull of her top, revealing her bare breasts.</p><p> </p><p>He pulls her back to him and she straddles his lap as they kiss, grinding against him in search before she leans back down on the pillows, allowing him to slide down her bodyand press his lips to her breasts.</p><p> </p><p>“Can we do this part later?” she groans as he pinches her left nipple before soothing it with his thumb and he chuckles,</p><p> </p><p>“That’s not how this works.” He points out, nipping at her skin and he can imagine her rolling her eyes,</p><p> </p><p>“It’s been <em>centuries</em> Lincoln,” she argues, “I don’t want to wait.”</p><p> </p><p>He grins and drums his fingers against her stomach,</p><p><br/>“But we don’t have to hurry,” he reasons, “Octavia, we don’t have to sneak you back to the Dropship, we don’t have to worry about being interrupted, we don’t have to break camp in the morning, you don’t have to see to Indra and I don’t have to be hidden inside when dawn breaks. For the first time, we have time.”</p><p><br/>She sniffs as she lifts a hand to stroke his cheek, cupping her palm so that he could lean into it,</p><p><br/>“Take your time then.” She surrenders, “Ai hod yu in, no matter what.”</p><p><br/>He nods and kisses her belly button before sliding down her body, hooking his fingers into her leggings and tugging them off. “We can move a little faster.” He allows and she grins before spreading her legs wide.</p><p><br/>He settles between them and rains kisses across her thighs, teasing her by edging closer and closer before moving away and she whimpers with frustrated lust before he finally presses his lips to her clit.</p><p><br/>She bucks against him and he throws his arm across her stomach to keep her in place as he sucks gently, causing her to whimper and press her thighs against his head. He grinds against the bedding as he pleasures her, seeking relief for his erection straining against his pants. When he rubs her swollen clit gently with his thumb, she comes moaning his name, panting slightly as he kneels between her thighs.</p><p><br/>She looks beautiful, lying there flushed with her hair spilling across her shoulders and the pillow, he smiled tenderly as he reaches down to stroke her cheek, but she intercepts his hand midday and presses a kiss to his knuckles.</p><p><br/>“I’d offer to return the favour,” she says, still breathless, “But I don’t think you need it.”</p><p><br/>He chuckles and glances down at his pants before sliding off the bed to pull them off. Octavia props herself up onto her elbows as he settles back down between her thighs,</p><p><br/>“Ai hod yu in,” he murmurs as he takes himself in hand and gently pushes inside her, making her moan as he stretches her, her wet heat feeling perfect around his cock.</p><p><br/>“Sha,” Octavia sobs, gripping his shoulders, “Lincoln, I’ve missed you…so much.”</p><p><br/>“I’m here now,” he pants as he rests his forehead against hers, “We’re here now, that’s all that matters.”</p><p><br/>They move as one and fall apart as one, unable to release each other even as sweat coats their skin and their mingled breath leaves them lightheaded, he can only manage to pull out of her and lays panting on top of her until she rolls them onto their side. They fall back asleep with their arms still wrapped around each other.</p><hr/><p><br/>“Hey, lovebirds!”</p><p><br/>From their tangled embrace, Lincoln lifts his head and stares at the door as Octavia groans,</p><p><br/>“Go away, Diyoza!”</p><p><br/>Instead, they get a sharp rap of knuckles, “I’d love to but I’m getting requests for proof of life.”</p><p><br/>“From who?” Octavia demands,</p><p><br/>“<em>Whom</em>.” Diyoza corrects, sounding so much like a seda that Lincoln winces at the memories of long lessons in Gonalseng. Octavia doesn’t seem to have the same issue.  </p><p><br/>“Oh go…”</p><p><br/>Lincoln doesn’t understand the words Octavia says next, but it sounds similar to the Skai-kru insult of floating oneself and he picks up on a scandalised gasp that he suspects is from Hope.</p><p><br/>He glances up at the smoke hole again, guesses the time and begins easing his niron from his chest, causing her to grumble. The two of them stumble from the bed and he makes his way to the chest that held all his clothes while she fetched hers off the floor.</p><p><br/>Strangely enough, she only checks to make sure he’s decent before she opens the door, still pulling her shirt over her head.</p><p><br/>“Happy now?!” she demands as Diyoza eases her way into the cabin, wearing a smirk as she runs her eyes up and down Octavia’s frame.</p><p><br/>“Six’ll get you ten that you end up pregnant before the week’s out.”</p><p><br/>In his past life, Lincoln would have never abandoned Octavia when she was arguing with someone, less out of support for her and more because he wanted to be able to hold her back if or when she started making her point with her fists.</p><p><br/>But what she was doing with Diyoza wasn’t arguing, not really, it was more a friendly bickering that was less about what they were saying and more just interacting with each other. So, he comes up behind her, puts his hands on her hips and presses a kiss to the back of her head,</p><p><br/>“I’m headed to the river with Hope.” he says, and she breaks her conversation with Diyoza to nod,</p><p><br/>“Be safe.” She implores him and he thinks about how he’s swum in that water countless times, he’s fetched the water for the village since he was old enough to walk and carry the buckets but that was before they found each other again. It’s understandable that she’d be worried about losing him.</p><p><br/>Hope is standing with her arms crossed at the bonfire, shifting on the spot with clear impatience but she smiles when she sees him,</p><p><br/>“I would have come to get you, but mom said to wait,” She begins, and he picks up the buckets before he jerks his head motioning for her to walk with him. </p><p><br/>“Not because she wanted to do you any favours.” she continues and he smirks,</p><p><br/>“Because she wanted to pick a fight with Octavia?” he suggested and she nodded sharply, “Yeah, she and Auntie O used to bicker a lot when I was growing up, there wasn’t much else for them to do.”</p><p><br/>They make their way through the forest and Lincoln notices how Hope’s movements seem jerky and rushed, there was something upsetting her. He wonders if he frightened her last night, when his memories drove him ranting into the night and she’d had to help Octavia carry him back to his hut.</p><p><br/>He’s trying to determine how to put her at ease when they reach the river and she kicks at the pebbles on the shore, <br/><br/><br/>“We’re still going to be friends, right?” she blurts out, fidgeting with her hands,</p><p><br/>“Even though you’ve…changed.”</p><p><br/>He wants to answer straight away but this is important, so he finishes filling the bucket and makes sure that it’s on firm ground before standing up. He faces her and puts a hand on her shoulder,</p><p><br/>“We were friends before and we’re friends now,” he promises, “All that’s changed is Octavia and I are together again.”</p><p><br/>She exhales and her shoulders drop in clear relief which convinces him to draw her in for a hug, cupping the back of her head gently as she sniffled.</p><p><br/>“You know you’re kind of my uncle, right?” she points out, her voice slightly muffled and he chuckles,</p><p><br/>“If you want me to be.”</p><p><br/>He releases her and she rocks back on her heels, her head tilted slightly as she considers it,</p><p><br/>“Uncle Linc,” she tests the words on her tongue and they both shake their heads, “Uncle L?”</p><p><br/>They mirror each other’s expression of disgust, “You can stay Lincoln,” she declares, and he nods gratefully.</p><hr/><p><br/>Lincoln hadn’t noticed that he and Octavia were being given space until Gaia’s visit seemed to signal to the others that they could begin approaching.</p><p><br/>Jackson was the first, interrupting their make-out session by Octavia’s flower garden to suggest that he give Lincoln a medical examination later, ensure that no neurological damage had been done. And Lincoln has noticed Abby’s absence, along with Marcus Kane and others but neither Hope nor Octavia had offered an explanation as to why yet and knowing how bad the situation had been getting when he died, he’s almost afraid to ask.</p><p><br/>Octavia gets pulled into a game of chase by the children, which Lincoln watches leaning against a tree, enjoying watching as she deliberately slowed her pace and comforted a little girl who fell over, soon getting her laughing again. Miller comes to stand beside him, the two of them enjoying a moment of silence before he speaks,</p><p><br/>“I don’t know how the hell it happened,” he said, “But I’m glad you’re alive again.”</p><p><br/>“Me too.” Lincoln offered and Miller nods before sidling off again and Lincoln tries to recall if that was the second time ever that they’d exchanged words or the third.</p><p><br/>He meets Madi and Jordan when he sees the young man dragging the girl across the village, bounding towards him and for a moment he think’s he’s going to try and go <em>through</em> him when he comes to a sharp stop.</p><p><br/>“Hi!” he beams, waving with such enthusiasm that his hand blurs, “I’m Jordan, you knew my parents Monty Green and Harper McIntyre!”</p><p><br/>Had he?</p><p><br/>He recalls Monty, who’d interrogated him about farming and agriculture when he’d first sheltered with Skai-kru after the mountain, but Lincoln hadn’t known much beyond the basics, he’d been raised as a warrior. Had Harper been…?</p><p><br/>“I did,” he lies smoothly, “They were good people.”</p><p><br/>Jordan beams and reaches behind him, using all his strength to push the reluctant girl between them, “This is Madi,” he states, “She’s a grounder.”</p><p><br/>She wasn’t dressed like one, she didn’t have any visible tattoos and she rolled her eyes like Skaikru.</p><p><br/>“Thanks Jordan,” she says sarcastically.</p><p><br/>“Chit kru?” Lincoln asks and she huffs,</p><p><br/>“Louwodaklironkru,” she answers automatically, “But I was raised by Clarke.”</p><p><br/><em>Clarke</em>.</p><p><br/>In spite of everything, he smiles, “Do you like to draw?” he asks, luring her into a conversation and the two of them follow him to the bonfire where one of their people he vaguely recognises was serving food. Hope sees him taking a seat and her shoulders shake with supressed laughter as she pointedly turns her back and leaves him to Jordan’s enthusiastic recollection of everything that had occurred since he was born. Lincoln is trying to listen and eat at the same time when Octavia joins them,</p><p><br/>“Clarke’s looking for you,” she tells Madi, who immediately hops up and leaves without even saying goodbye.</p><p><br/>“Not you.” She tells Jordan as he looks up at her and he smiles, shifting closer to Lincoln so that she’d have space for her chair.</p><p><br/>She meets his eye over Jordan’s mop of black hair and smirks as the young man veers off onto another tangent about people called Primes and body thieves which Lincoln only vaguely listens to as he figured if they had still been a threat, Indra would have set up defences around the village mere hours after she arrived. So much of what had happened sounded like the myths and legends that he and Octavia used to whisper to each other at night under the cover of darkness, but he watches her now and she doesn’t scoff or deny any of what Jordan tells him.</p><p><br/>His heart breaks for her, it breaks for all of them and that night, when he’s pulled her into his hut and shut the door behind them, he embraces her tightly and kisses her again and again until she’s breathless and smiling. He backs her up until she’s against the table, putting his hands on her hips to lift her and sit her on the edge, he unlaces her shirt and wrappings until she’s topless and pulls off his own t-shirt. Octavia undoes his pants and slips her hand down to his cock, stroking and caressing it as he presses his forehead against hers.  </p><p><br/>“Bed?” he suggests, as he thrusts into her hand and feels himself reaching the edge.</p><p><br/>“No,” she exhales, glancing up at him with just a hint of nervousness, “Here.”</p><p><br/>He manages to hide his surprise and cups her cheek so she can rest her face in his palm, “Yeah?”</p><p><br/>She nods, sliding off the table, “I’m not a virgin anymore, you don’t have to be careful with me.”</p><p><br/>He grins and pulls her in for a deep, passionate kiss, not breaking until they needed air.</p><p><br/>“Turn around,” he instructs and she complies with a satisfied smirk, waiting patiently as he gathers up her hair and drapes it over her shoulder, he pushes her pants down to her thighs and pulls her against him as he works himself free, he slides his erection across her lips a few times teasingly before replacing it with his fingers, rubbing her clit until she was weak-kneed before he slipped his fingers inside her, stretching her to make sure she was ready and he braced her with an arm across her chest as he bent his knees slightly. She cried out when he thrust deep inside her, breaking into a moan as she sunk down onto his cock and her hands flailed before gripping his forearm for balance as he rocked inside her.</p><p><br/>“Yes,” she sobbed as she leant her head back on his shoulder, “Lincoln…so good.”</p><p><br/>Every time they’d been together before had been lovemaking, now it was sex, rough and slightly clumsy but Octavia was panting his name and her walls were squeezing him, so any concerns he might have had were driven from him as he pounded into her.</p><p><br/>“I’m close.” he warned, nipping at her ear and she bit her lip to smother her moan,</p><p><br/>“Come inside me,” she begged, “Please, I want it.”</p><p><br/>He saw stars as he finished and pulled out, carrying her to the bed and laying her down so he could undress her properly and then bring her to climax with his mouth on her breast and his fingers inside her.</p><p><br/>In the aftermath, he lay with his head propped up on his arm as Octavia settled her chin on his stomach, tracing lazy patterns onto his skin.</p><p><br/>“Diyoza might be right,” she grumbles, and he manages to life his head to look down at her,</p><p><br/>“About?”</p><p><br/>Her lisp twist into a wry grin, “If we don’t start being careful, I’ll be pregnant pretty soon.”</p><p><br/>He hums and reaches down to scoop her up so that she was straddling his waist, <br/><br/><br/>“Do you want to be careful?” he asks, and she shakes her head, her hair ticking his skin, “Not at all.”</p><hr/><p><br/>The next morning, Hope leads him off their regular path and takes such a strange route that he nearly finds himself lost.</p><p><br/>“Are you kidnapping me?” he teases as they wind their way downriver, “If so, will Octavia be allowed to visit?”</p><p><br/>She rolls her eyes, “Don’t be gross, I just thought we could try fetching water from another part of the river today.”</p><p><br/>Soon they wouldn’t need to fetch the water at all. Raven Reyes might have been stripped from her world of tech and gadgets but she had recovered quickly and was working on <br/>a system to get fresh water pumped to a well in the village, and when that happened, he and Hope would have to find another reason for their morning walks.</p><p><br/>She makes her way to a rocky bank and only by grabbing her arm and yanking her back does she avoid the snake lurking by a log. She curses and drags him a few more steps back as the snake hisses at them for intruding on its sanctuary.</p><p><br/>“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go to our usual spot?” he asks, and she huffs,</p><p><br/>“I’m not the problem,” she snaps, “Bellamy and Clarke are.”</p><p><br/>Bellamy and Clarke?</p><p><br/>Hope kicks at the dirt, “They asked me if they could join us today and when I said no, I’m pretty certain they decided to stake out the river anyway.”</p><p><br/>‘You’re my people’ Clarke had told him centuries ago, and then her sketches had brought back his memories, triggering a panic attack that had woken half the village.</p><p><br/>Her actions had brought him back to Octavia.</p><p><br/>Bellamy…</p><p><br/>He had thought he would be his brother once; he had betrayed him underneath the Mountain, he had come close to hating him when he had helped Pike slaughter three hundred of his people. He had walked to his execution forgiving him.</p><p><br/>But they hadn’t spoken a word to each other in his second life, Octavia’s brother studiously avoiding him... until now.</p><p><br/>What was they supposed to say to one another?</p><p><br/>Lost in thought, Lincoln trudges along slightly behind Hope, uncertain of how to act next.</p><p><br/>He would need to make peace with Bellamy and Clarke soon, for their sakes, for the sake of the village and for the sake of Octavia who might be pregnant soon.</p><p><br/>He knew Bellamy well enough to know that he would hover anxiously over Octavia her entire pregnancy, haunted by his memories of his mother giving birth.</p><p><br/>And Lincoln loved Octavia enough to not want her to have to split her time between the two of them.</p><p><br/>So he would need to speak to both Bellamy and Clarke, to make his peace with them so they could all move on.</p><hr/><p><br/>Their trip to the river is surprisingly uninterrupted, therefore, Lincoln walks Hope back to the village to find Diyoza staring at Jordan with frightening intensity as he tried to teach her the basics of farming. He leaves her there and makes his way to the healing hut which was moderately empty even though the children had announced last night that they wanted to have a tree climbing competition today.</p><p><br/>Clarke and Jackson were doing inventory when he entered and her eyes widened in alarm,</p><p><br/>“Is Octavia okay?”</p><p><br/>Are the first words out of her mouth and such obvious concern for the woman he loves does mean something to him.</p><p><br/>He nods, “She’s fine,” he assures her before taking another glance of the hut and making an assumption,</p><p><br/>“Can we talk?”</p><p><br/>Her mouth twists and she turns to Jackson but he only shrugs, “Go on, it’s quiet enough and I can do inventory on my own, I’ll shout if I need.”</p><p><br/>Lincoln thinks that was the opposite of what Clarke wanted to hear, judging by how slowly she puts away the items in her hands and makes her way to the door, still she follows him outside as he makes his way to Octavia’s flower garden.</p><p><br/>“Jordan’s been checking on these since she planted them,” Clarke reveals, “He doesn’t want her to be disappointed if they don’t grow.”</p><p><br/>Lincoln grins, “I replanted some of them last night after she fell asleep,” he tells her,</p><p><br/>“She put them too close together.”</p><p><br/>Clarke nods and crosses her arms, “I…Lincoln, I’m sorry,” she says in a rush, “I had hoped that the sketchbook would trigger your memories, but I didn’t mean it to be traumatic.”</p><p><br/>“I was tortured, experimented on, imprisoned and shot in the head Clarke,” he argues, “How would remembering that <em>not</em> be traumatising?”</p><p><br/>Her jaw drops as comprehension dawns in her eyes and his heart breaks a little that she was so far gone as to not have realised that herself. Once, she had been the kind of person who hadn’t needed that pointed out to her. A long time ago.</p><p><br/>What had Wanheda survived since then?</p><p><br/>“What’s done is done,” he tells her, allowing his pity to overrule his sense, “I’m here now.”</p><p><br/>She nods and sniffs before turning her face away from him and he tells himself to be the better person, to sling an arm around her and draw her in for a comforting hug. She holds a rigid pose for a dozen heartbeats before she melts against him, whispering her apology over and over again as he rocks her soothingly.</p><p><br/>He senses they’re being watched, and he rests his chin on Clarke’s head so he can study the area although it turns out he doesn’t have to.</p><p><br/>Bellamy is standing only a few feet away, his eyes wet as he watches them with such longing that Lincoln is nearly struck breathless.</p><p><br/>At first, he thinks it’s for Clarke, after all, anybody could see how in love with her he is, but there was something just unfamiliar enough about the expression to make Lincoln reconsider.</p><p><br/>And to realise that it wasn’t Clarke that Bellamy was looking at.</p><p><br/>What’s done is done, he thinks to himself, lifting an arm off Clarke to hold it out to Bellamy.</p><p><br/>“Come here, brother.” He beckons to the younger man and he’s nearly knocked a step backwards by the force of them colliding. </p><p><br/>The two of them had never embraced before, yet, strangely enough, it wasn’t the space between him and Bellamy that was awkward but the space between him and Clarke.</p><p><br/>The insanity of it all makes Lincoln want to laugh.</p><p><br/>Centuries had passed, worlds had burned, empires had fallen and yet these two still hadn’t figured out they were in love.</p><p><br/>He’s smirking as he releases them.</p><p><br/>Now they had all the time in the world.</p><hr/><p><br/>They were all one people in the village, Gaia preached, there were no longer any outsiders or any krus, they were one.</p><p><br/>Which Lincoln supposed was a good thing, otherwise he might have issue with the Azgedan spy that Hope kept sneaking out with under the belief that nobody saw them.</p><p><br/>They didn’t know that one of the villagers liked to sit up at night and had reported their coming and going to him and Gaia in case it was a threat.</p><p><br/>But Lincoln trusted Hope.</p><p><br/>Also, he’d overheard Diyoza complaining to Octavia about being woken up by her daughter sneaking out and in at night and having to pretend to be asleep when she got back.</p><p><br/>It’s the reason they offer the hut that was meant to be for Octavia to Hope once it’s finished.</p><p><br/>After all, she and Lincoln had never willingly spent a night apart and any distance between them was unwelcome.</p><p><br/>Especially when Octavia starts sleeping late and suffering from headaches.</p><p><br/>Which she argues could be anything, but he can see her excitement and the hope in her eyes as they make their way to the healing hut and Clarke runs through a list of questions and draws up a calendar.</p><p><br/>“It’s too soon to tell,” she apologises, “But hopefully…”</p><p><br/><em>Hopefully</em>…</p><p><br/>That’s what everyone says as Octavia starts moving around the village with more caution that she’s ever shown before, no longer chasing the children but settling them down for epic stories of ancient, ancient places long since lost to dust. Bellamy hovers over her anxiously as she eats until it’s hard to tell whether she’s being put off her food due to symptoms or annoyance at her brother.</p><p><br/>Octavia’s periods have never been regular, but every day she doesn’t bleed means another day of possibility.</p><p><br/>It’s hard for either of them to wipe the smiles off their faces.</p><p><br/>His morning walks with Hope are delayed by Clarke’s visits to their hut, a long list of questions and prodding until the day when Octavia is barely awake before she’s complaining of nausea and nearly throws up on Clarke.</p><p><br/>Clarke’s shining eyes are all the confirmation Lincoln needs before he’s embracing Octavia, holding her gently as she veers between recovery and elation.</p><p><br/>He turns to Clarke, “You can let him in now.” He allows and she doesn’t even pretend not to know who he’s talking about.</p><p><br/>Bellamy bounds in seconds later, sweeping Octavia into a fierce hug as she laughs against his shoulder.</p><p><br/>“You’ll squish the baby, Bell.” she warns, and he snorts, “The baby probably doesn’t even have fingernails yet, O,” he argues, “It’ll be fine.”</p><p><br/>As the months and Octavia’s pregnancy progresses, a weird mixture of tribal knowledge and modern medicine is adopted to determine the baby’s growth and to guess the gender. He and Octavia both suspected it was a girl, but the healers couldn’t seem to agree one way or another, only judging that the baby was healthy and singular.</p><p><br/>There had been a brief period where twins had been suspected and Octavia had panicked at the thought. Diyoza had been one of the main sources of comfort, having been pregnant in a prison colony, one hundred years of cryo-sleep, an active warzone, another one hundred years of cryo-sleep, a planet with two suns, travel between worlds and finally, having given birth in a hut in the middle of nowhere with nothing but Octavia’s very, very basic knowledge to help her.</p><p><br/>And Hope had turned out fine.</p><p><br/>But Lincoln still made a point to ask Clarke not to stray too far from the village once Octavia reached her third trimester.</p><p><br/>Which is when she’d also insisted on joining him and Hope for their morning walks to the river,</p><p><br/>“I need exercise,” she complained one morning as she struggled to sit up in bed, pushing up with both arms and glaring down at her stomach,</p><p><br/>“And it’s either crash your alone time with my adopted niece or have my brother hover over me as I stomp around the village like I’ll fall over at any second.”</p><p><br/>She nearly loses her balance, and he takes her arms as she curses and drops her forehead to his collarbone, “Remind me again why I thought this was a good idea?” she mumbles and he smirks,</p><p><br/>“It was our idea.” he says, gladly taking half the blame as he kisses her cheek.  </p><p><br/>The morning is warm, even before the sun has finished climbing the sky so when they reach the river, Octavia doesn’t even pause but toes off her shoes, marches straight in <br/>and dives under the water.</p><p><br/>“We should have guessed she’d do that.” Hope sighs, resting her head on his shoulder,</p><p><br/>“Convincing her to get out again might be an issue,” he adds as a droplet of sweat makes its way down the side of his neck, “Come on.”</p><p><br/>Leaving their buckets on the shore, they strip and wade over to where she was floating on her back,</p><p><br/>“I’m not getting out,” she warned, “This is my home now.”</p><p><br/>He moves closer and puts his hand on her belly, feeling their baby move, “Feel better?”</p><p><br/>She hums in agreement, “Just leave me here until I go into labour.”</p><p><br/>He rolls his eyes and turns to Hope, “Watch her for me?”</p><p><br/>He swims away from them to fill the buckets, thinking to take them back to the village to prevent any alarm when he and Hope didn’t come back in time.</p><p><br/>But he’s not even out of the water before he hears Octavia groan in pain and Hope’s shout.</p><p><br/>He turns to see his lover disappearing under the water.</p><p><br/>His heart stops, he can’t breathe and somehow the water feels like mud, slowing him as he lunges towards her.</p><p><br/>He reaches her as Hope draws her back up, heaving her under the armpits and Octavia chokes out water, spluttering and gasping.</p><p><br/>“My water,” she gasped, “Broke.”</p><p><br/>Another moan and Lincoln grabs her, an arm around her chest as she tries to fold her body, cursing to himself he looks over his shoulder back towards the trees.</p><p><br/>“<em>Bellamy!</em>” he bellows, “Get here now!”</p><p><br/>Hope ducks into the water and takes hold of Octavia’s legs, “There’s no way he could hear you from the village.”</p><p><br/>“There’s no way my brother isn’t lurking somewhere nearby,” Octavia groans as they carry her to shore, “Overprotective jackass.”</p><p><br/>Bellamy reaches them at a run, scattering stones as he slides to his knees at his sister’s side,</p><p><br/>“Are you okay?”</p><p><br/>“Of course she’s not okay,” Hope points out, “She’s having the baby.”</p><p><br/>Lincoln has a moment of indecision before recalling that his right hand was his sword hand before slipping his left into Octavia’s grip.</p><p><br/>“Let’s get her back to Clarke and Jackson.” He decides.</p><p> </p><hr/><p><br/>The sun is rising on the new day when their newborn’s cries echo through the village.</p><p><br/>“It’s a girl!” Clarke cries, cradling her cautiously as Jackson cut the umbilical cord.</p><p><br/>Octavia has barely even dropped back to the pillows before she’s pushing herself back up again,</p><p><br/>“I want to see her.” she demands, holding out her arms and Lincoln is already rising from his seat, straining to get a better look at their daughter.</p><p><br/>Bellamy is hovering at Clarke’s shoulder and gets a back kick in his shins as she carefully makes her way over to lower her into Octavia’s arms.</p><p><br/>At first glance, she takes his breath away and it’s a moment before his world starts moving again.</p><p><br/>“She’s perfect,” he whispers, reaching out to take one of her little hands in his, “So…perfect.”</p><p><br/>Octavia chuckles and cradles her closer, “Isn’t she though?”</p><p><br/>Lincoln hears a grunt behind him and glances over his shoulder to see Bellamy hunched over, clutching his stomach as Clarke moved her arm back to her side,</p><p><br/>“Another few minutes,” he promises, grinning, “Then we’ll let you start worrying about her.”</p><p><br/>Bellamy surrenders with a nod and heads to the door where Hope and Diyoza were already waiting for their own turn.</p><p><br/>Meanwhile, Lincoln shifts onto the bed, careful not to jostle Octavia as she hands him their child. She was so small, so fragile and so beautiful.</p><p><br/>“Hello Claudia,” he says, “Welcome to the world.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Trigedasleng Translation <br/>Sha- Yes<br/>Heda- Leader<br/>Ai laik Lincoln kom Trikru. En yu laik ai niron, Octavia kom Skaikru- I am Lincoln of the Tree people and you are my lover, Octavia of the Sky people</p></blockquote></div></div>
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